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Saturday, November 22, 2014

He Shoots, He Scores ... Some Great Tickets

One of the joys of living on the dock are the friendships we have made with folks who live and work here.

There's Erica who has a busy little hairdressing business with her living area in the back that she shares with her two dogs, Max and Champagne. We greet each other each morning and the dogs make sure to check out our comings and goings.

There's the day-excursion catamaran at the end of the dock with various staff who come and go but always have a nod and hello as they pass by. Sea Tow has an interesting array of working boats at the dock and whether responding to a call for a 'tow' or taking school excursions out on the water they are often bustling around.

Us on the left, Castaway Girl at the end of the dock and the dive boat on the right.

And there's Dwayne and Gerry who run a small dive boat from the dock directly opposite us for Dwayne's business at Admiralty Dive Center. We enjoy our early morning chats and it was Dwayne and his wife Laura whom we joined when we went out to Buck Island for the memorial service a couple of weeks ago. I'm now eagerly anticipating the fresh avocados that Gerry has promised me from one of his 13 avocado trees. He reminds me of when Mom grew zucchini in the past and wanted to give them away to anyone who would take them - 13 trees is a lot!

Well, last night Dwayne asked if we'd like to join him, Laura and Molly (who works for them) at the Paradise Jam tournament opening night. Dwayne had taken one of the CBS staff our diving earlier in the week who had given him a couple of tickets and then he was able to pick up a few more at local prices, so off we went for an evening of great college ball. Each year, eight teams are invited to the tournament and the event has grown that now many of the top teams vie for a return. First weekend is the men's tournament and the second weekend is the women's.

Centre court, front row - can't get much closer to the action.

Dwayne and Laura totally knew the scoop and timed it perfectly. They picked us up at 4pm and we were seated centre court with front row seats by 4:30. The tournament is held at the University of the Virgin Islands and the gymnasium is probably equivalent to a large high-school gym, which was just perfect - not often you get to see such great basketball in such an intimate setting.

Nevada making a shot, but they were outgunned by Seton Hall.

Did I mention that for the cost of keeping Dwayne supplied in beer for the night, we got to see not one but two games! We did joke later that we were taking a risk in that the tickets might have been cheaper than the beer, but at $4 we were all drinking cheap whether we chose Coors or Heineken.

Half-time show was a demonstration - you certainly don't want to mess with this woman, she was strong!

First game was Seton Hall vs. Nevada. Unfortunately for Nevada they just couldn't keep up with the speed and pressure offered up by Seton Hall and the game fell apart for them in the second half.

End of game one, time for another cold beer!

Second game was a nail-biter all the way to the last buzzer: Old Dominion vs. Louisiana State. ODU started slow and spent the first half playing catch-up. However, in the second half they were able to maintain their lead of just 2 to 6 points and ended up holding on right to the end with a beautiful final 3-pointer.

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Mowzer's Crew

Catherine & Henry: We purchased our first boat, a Tanzer 26 in 2007 and sailed her during the summer on the Ottawa River. We then purchased Mowzer in 2009 and started off by getting into the charter business with CYOA. Over the next few years we spent our allotted time aboard learning as much as we could before we set off by ourselves. We finally 'cut the dock lines' as they say and moved aboard in October 2014.

Catherine: Trained in Math & Comp Sci, worked most recently (15 years) in high tech as an HR systems architect, interested in photography, sewing (learning canvas repair), languages, hiking, snorkelling and wants to learn more about diesel engines.

Henry: Trained as an Engineer and worked many years in high tech as a network planner, took a career turn and worked at Home Depot (as a job he could do anywhere in the world), interested in exploration, hiking, cooking, and sports.